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The Scranton Iron Furnaces

I am traveling all around America. I am visiting all 48 states and making a lot of stops. One of the things I am focused on is blacksmithing during this trip and I made a stop at these historic furnaces in Scranton.

You have never seen anything like these monsters. They are not operational anymore but they remain preserved as a park and historic site.

And the city of Scranton often has events at the park where these furnaces are located. This site is part of the Anthracite Heritage museum of Scranton. I also visited that site. It has a wonderful history of coal and coal mining in Pennsylvania.

This area of pennsylvania is coal country. And anthracite coal burns very hot. So it made a lot of sense to have these Iron smelting furnaces near the supply of coal. These furnaces were among the largest producers of Iron the country and they were an important supplier to the early building years of the railroad system across america.

Here are the three furnaces. It's difficult to get a sense for the size of these things until you realize that is a white pickup truck about 50 feet from them.

This next picture gives you a closer look. The railing at the top is waist high. That gives you a good sense for how large these furnaces are. The actual furnace is the smaller arched area near the construction vehicle. That is where the heat pot is. There are four of them in this structure.

And while I visited they were setting up to do an upcoming event where they would melt iron and pour it into molds. Here is a look at the furnace they were setting up.

And as any part of a large scale foundry operation you needed a lot of blacksmith work. Right across the street is the original blacksmith shop. The white marble sign on the building says "Blacksmith Shop".